Cicely on Treating Pain

Overview of treatment

Partnership in relief

Spiritual care

Distraction

Complementary therapies

Find the right doctor

Overview of treatment

Before we actually move to the complimentary therapies, I think we really ought to look at what a wide span there is of the ordinary therapies. It isn't only analgesics one is talking about, there are a whole lot of drugs, drugs for nausea, drugs for breathlessness, drugs for sleeplessness, drugs for anxiety and it isn't only drugs. I mean, I remember a patient saying it seems so strange, nobody seemed to want to look at me. Then I came here and you listened. It seemed the pain went with me talking. We take a lot of time on our admission of patients or on our first visit out in a patient's home, which is where we see most of them anyway. We need to hear their story. And in telling the story, we will understand better. But there is something about being able to express how you feel that helps you to come to terms with your feelings and also, in fact, may take some of them away or certainly ease them. So, I think before you start anything else, you need to be absolutely sure of your clinical competence. The whole attitude. Attitudes knead together with skills. If we don't put attitudes together with our skills, we are selling patients short.


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